Charges Possible In I-95 Death

Before they abandoned Scott Artz on the side of Interstate 95, his friends were so drunk they weren't sure why they had piled into Artz's 1982 Mustang, police said on Monday.

Artz was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver a few minutes after his friends left him and drove away in his car on Friday night.

Now it's possible those friends could face charges of culpable negligence for the events leading up to Artz's death, said Sgt. Dan Cucchi of the Oakland Park Police Department. The State Attorney's Office will decide whether their actions warrant that charge.

"You have to have such an indifference to the rights of others that is almost equivalent to an intentional violation of someone's rights," said Assistant State Attorney Steve DeLuca.

Traffic homicide charges await the driver of the late-model white pickup truck that struck Artz, investigators said. He has not been found.

The final afternoon of Artz's life started off at Singer's, a bar in Pompano Beach. Artz, 34, who ran a carpet installation business, was drinking beer with his friend and co-worker Jeremy Smith, 25.

At some point, two of Smith's friends, Justin Paul, 31, and Louis Cross, 28, met up with them.

One of them would later tell police that he consumed 20 bottles of beer.

"I was just getting started," he said.

Artz, who had problems with drinking and a long history of driving infractions in Ohio and Florida, was struggling to turn his life around, said his girlfriend, Angela Lopez, 32, of Miamisburg, Ohio.

Lopez and Artz, who have had an on-and-off relationship since 1991, were planning to get married. In March, Lopez gave birth to their son, Brandon Scott Artz. She planned to move to Florida in July.

"He was a hard worker and wanted to be a family man," Lopez said.

The two talked on the telephone daily. But last Tuesday, they had an argument and stopped talking to each other. She planned to call him on Father's Day to make up.

Lopez wonders whether Artz got drunk on Friday night as a reaction to their ongoing argument.

"I just don't know what happened," she said, through tears.

According to Cucchi, this is what happened:

Sometime after 11 p.m., the foursome was in Artz's car, headed south on the interstate.

Artz hammered the accelerator on the former Florida Highway Patrol vehicle until it reached speeds of 120 mph to130 mph. As they roared south, the passengers complained.

When Artz ignored their pleas, one of the back-seat passengers smacked Artz on the back of the head, infuriating him. Artz pulled off to the left side of the road, next to the HOV lane, near Oakland Park Boulevard.

A fight broke out. There was an argument about who would drive. One friend tried to pull Artz back into the car, while another urged the group to leave him.

When Cucchi caught up with Artz's friends about 1 a.m. to piece together what had happened, he said they were still so drunk that he had to delay his interview with them.

Donna Pazdera can be reached at dpazdera@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4572.